Shinty League Change Proposed | |
01 September 2020 The Camanachd Association Board has written to clubs proposing to trial an eight-team league structure for the 2022 shinty season. In recent seasons, clubs raised a number of concerns around the structure of shinty’s league and cup competitions. These concerns included cup entry criteria, the mix of home and away fixtures, free weeks during the summer and not all Premiership fixtures being completed in 2019. This prompted the Board into a two-pronged response, promoting a competitions survey and convening a Short-Term-Working-Group (STWG) under the guidance of Competitions Director Steven MacKenzie to formulate proposals. Ronald Ross provided administrative support whilst Lisa MacColl (Aberdour & Womens Camanachd Association), Calum Grant (Kingussie & Scotland U-21 captain) and Andy MacLean (Referee) brought a good mix of experience and knowledge from across the shinty community. However whilst the survey favoured a ten-team Premiership and ten team National league with no change to the cup competitions, the STWG recognised such a structure would present a number of difficulties so presented a further proposal for an eight-team Premiership and eight-team National league. Having considered all responses, the Board has contacted clubs strongly recommending that eight-team leagues be introduced in season 2022 for a two-year trial period. The survey received 184 responses with the majority of responses coming from players (53%), supporters (22%), committee members (18%), referees (1%), clubs (1%) and affiliates (1%). Responses favoured retaining the ten-team Premiership which was introduced in 2015, expanding the National League to ten teams and allowing reserve teams to be promoted to the National and to enter the Balliemore Cup. The STWG considered the viability of this proposal and had a number of concerns. Primarily, this was around the number of clubs willing to join the National League and whether this would be sustainable into the future. The suitability of reserve teams competing at national level because of their age profile and the fluctuating nature of their player pool was also a concern, as was the gap in performance level between the top and bottom of a ten-team National League. A considerable number of responses also highlighted the gap in performance levels for the first round of the South section of the Artemis Macaulay Cup. In addition, analysis of player responses revealed a majority amongst players from the most successful Premiership teams (and by extension those that play most games) were concerned about the number of fixtures. Their suggested solutions were either smaller leagues or reducing the Artemis Macaulay Cup fixtures. In response to these issues, the STWG also developed an alternative proposal around eight-team leagues for consideration by the Board. This would always apply to the Premier and National, and where possible in the area leagues depending on the numbers. The Board were therefore presented with three options:
N.B. all three options retain the current cup formats. The Board considered these options at the July 202 Board meeting. They agreed that the desire for more games was unworkable and decided to strongly propose the membership agree to the STWG alternative proposal for an eight-team Premier and eight-team National. Benefits of Eight-team Leagues In critiquing the questionnaire feedback proposal, the STWG identified a range of potential benefits: Reduction in fixtures – the assumption of eight-team leagues rather than ten-team leagues would see a reduction of four fixtures for Premier league teams (two home and two away fixtures). In overall terms, this would see Premier league fixtures reduce from 90 fixtures to 56 fixtures in a season (albeit the two clubs dropping would play a further fourteen fixtures each). This would see the current potential maximum fixtures reduce from 30 (18 league + 12 cup) to 26 (14 league + 12 cup). Perhaps more importantly the minimum number of fixtures would reduce from the current 21 (18 league + 3 cup) to 17 (14 league + 3 cup). In season 2019 there were 21 fixtures unfulfilled with 3 of these being in the Premier. We would hope that any reduction in fixtures would see all fixtures completed. For reserve teams, the minimum number of games will depend on the total number of teams in the area leagues. This is no different under the current league arrangements. Season 2020 was based on fifteen-teams in the South area leagues and twenty-teams in the North area leagues.
N.B. It should be noted that this scenario is a possibility even under the status quo. Reduction in travel – in these environmentally aware times, any reduction in travel must be viewed positively. The exact reduction in mileage would depend on who was in the league but using the 2019 positions as an example and an eight-team league would see the average mileage reduce by 266 miles per team: total mileage / average mileage per team - ten-team league is 9,794 / 979 whilst an eight-team league is 5,782 / 723. N.B. This represents a 25% reduction in travel times and travel costs for Premier League games. Competitiveness – It is believed that reducing the Premier to eight teams would increase the competitiveness across all leagues. The gap in performance between the top and bottom of an eight-team league is obviously less than the gap in performance in a ten-team league. The two clubs dropping into the National would increase the standards in this league, raising performance levels in the National. It is also expected this would happen in South 1 and North 1 as teams previously playing in the National moved to the area league. If correct, we would hope the increased competitiveness would prove attractive to players, supporters, sponsors and media alike. Increased flexibility – a reduction of four league fixtures presents a number of exciting possibilities on how best to use these additional weeks. Options include:
How? Season 2021 will progress under the status quo with final league positions determining league and cup entry for season 2022.
Next Steps The STWG have consulted widely and considered the responses in depth. The feedback received was invaluable, especially given the high percentage of responses from players and supporters. Whilst the desire to maximise the amount of games is understandable, the STWG anticipated problems with the most suggested format from the questionnaire feedback. Analysis of the player responses also indicated a concern amongst those players playing the most fixtures around the number of games and the travel required. The STWG therefore formulated an alternative proposal for the Board to consider. Having reviewed the questionnaire feedback and the options presented by the STWG, the Board unanimously agreed that they should take a lead on this issue and strongly recommend that the eight-team league structure be trialled for a two-year period. In addition to the usual statistics gathered by the Camanachd Association, feedback will be collected at the end of each season to monitor the impact on clubs. The Camanachd Association will be holding an online Q&A on 15 September 2020 at 18:00. Any questions not addressed in these two documents should be emailed to: aarron.macleod@shinty.com ahead of the Q&A and we will ensure that they are answered at this session. While the Camanachd Association would like to be able to answer all queries individually, this is simply not possible so this will be the main forum for addressing any questions with regards to this proposal. Following the Q&A session, all senior clubs are requested to respond via e-mail to aarron.macleod@shinty.com indicating their agreement or otherwise to this proposal by an ultimate deadline of Tuesday 22 September 2020. Key dates: 15 September 2020 – Q&A video conference call with Steven MacKenzie (Competitions Director) and Ronald Ross (National Development Officer). 22 September 2020 – Votes to be registered with Aarron MacLeod (Communications Manager) for, or against, the proposal. If there is no majority in favour of the eight-team league proposal the status quo will prevail for season 2022. |